A four-time outdoor world record-holder in the pole vault, Bob Seagren improved that standard by more than a foot between 1966 and 1972, culminating in a mark of 18' 5 3/4".
While at the University of Southern California, Seagren won four NCAA titles, indoors and outdoors. He also won six National AAU titles and was the Pan American Games champion in 1967. After winning the 1968 Olympic Trials, he was told he would have to compete at a "final" trial two weeks later. In the interim, he injured a disc in a spine, but succeeded in setting a world record of 17' 9" at the second trials. He went on to win the gold medal at the 1968 Olympic in a 7 1/2-hour competition. Four years later, in Munich, he was favored to win again, only to have his new Cata-Pole barred from competition in a last-minute ruling. Vaulting with an unfamiliar pole, he finished second to East German Wolfgang Nordwig who benefited because he didn't normally use a Cata-Pole. Seagren later joined the professional track circuit before becoming an actor and an executive for Puma.